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Daily Archives: February 20, 2014

Rutgers football coach Kyle Flood (right) presents a $5,000 check to retired U.S. Army Col. Stephen G. Abel, director of Rutgers Office of Veteran and Military Programs and Services. The money was earned through a Nov. 16 auction of a stars-and-stripes-themed football helmet. (Mark Sullivan/MyCentralJersey.com)

NEW BRUNSWICK As the Rutgers football team was suffering one of its worst losses of the 2013 season on the field, it simultaneously was doing some of its best community work of the year off of it.

The Nov. 16 auction of a stars-and-stripes-themed helmet held as part of Military Appreciation Day, when Rutgers fell to Cincinnati, raised $5,000, and coach Kyle Flood presented a check written in that amount Thursday afternoon to the Rutgers Office of Veteran and Military Programs and Services.

“This helmet originally was a way for us to honor the service academies. We wanted to do something as a sign of respect for them and what they sacrifice for our country and for us,” Flood said. “To be able to do something like this on campus and have the proceeds come back to Rutgers veterans on our own campus, I don’t know that there could be a better marriage than that when you do fundraiser.”

The Rutgers Veterans House opened July 1, 2010 and its director, retired U.S. Army Col. Stephen G. Abel, said it serves to foster the “academic success of veterans at Rutgers University” by helping to solve any academic or other problem disrupting progress toward achieving that goal. It thrives on donations.

Rutgers has been ranked by the Military Times as one of the top four four-year colleges in the nation in terms of services provided for military personnel for three years running, according to Abel. Scholarships are provided for admittance as well as persistence to stay in school.

“Having the support of the football team and the coach makes a huge difference,” Abel said, “and that difference translates into being able to keep veterans at Rutgers and helping them succeed and graduate.”

Rutgers football is taking its support one step further next season as Flood – whose familial military ties include a grandfather who was in the Navy, a father who was drafted and stationed in Germany during the Vietnam War, and an uncle who was wounded in duty in Vietnam – announced that two Rutgers veterans will be added as student equipment managers as part of a join program implemented by next season.

“Today is a special day for our program. It’s a special day for me,” said Flood, who was making his first visit to the grounds – an old semi-fraternity house – but pledged to be back in the future. “It’s an honor to come over here and get a chance to do something for the veterans on our campus for all the things they’ve done for us as a country. It really is a humbling experience.”

After making a check presentation, Rutgers football coach Kyle Flood chatted Thursday with several of the veterans around Rutgers Office of Veteran and Military Programs and Services on Lafayette Street in New Brunswick. (Mark Sullivan/MyCentralJersey.com)

“What I sense is a team that is determined to get back to winning at a level that we’ve been used to winning at and then going beyond that,” Flood said Thursday afternoon at an event at the Rutgers Veterans House in New Brunswick, where he presented a $5,000 check for the proceeds earned from the auction of a Rutgers football stars and stripes helmet held Nov. 16 on Military Appreciation Day.

“I see a team that is really measuring themselves against themselves. Not really measuring themselves against anybody on the outside right now. And I think that’s a good thing. When we get into spring, it’s going to be very competitive. It’s a lot of good-on-good work. We’ve got a lot of players that have played a significant amount in games. I think it will be a very spirited spring because of that.”

Flood made his debut on the Big Ten Network earlier this week – another sign that Rutgers move, which officially happens July 1, is getting closer and closer.

“For us in the football program, we’re kind of insulated from some of those things,” Flood said when asked about the lawsuit settlement. “(Athletics director) Julie (Hermann) handles all those issues. From the moment our bowl game ended, we’ve been operating as if we’re in the Big Ten and that’s kind of where our focus is. It certainly will be exciting to have some people from the Big Ten Network here this spring. I think that’s when the players will see the first real difference of it, other than having the logo on the field.”

While Flood’s attention for most of the past two months has been dedicated to recruiting and hiring new assistant coaches, he said the current players are busy improving. That includes the No. 1 subject of offseason attention, quarterback Gary Nova, who lost his two-year hold as a starter late last season.

“Right now they’re doing most of their work with the strength coaches. As we get a little bit closer to spring break we’ll start doing some workouts where the coaches will be involved,” Flood said. “As we get into spring practice, I think that’s where everybody on the team will be judged. Not just Gary but all the quarterbacks and all the players. I think as a whole right now it’s a very focused football team. I think they’ve done an excellent job since they came back from the winter break and all the reports I get from the weight room are really exciting to me and I think to the entire coaching staff.”

Rutgers’ most recent coaching hire was wide receivers coach Ben McDaniels, who came from the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he worked under Flood’s predecessor Greg Schiano and alongside many of Flood’s friends in the business.

Flood said he did not speak with Schiano about McDaniels but that the recommendations he did get before making the hire were “excellent” and he was “impressed” during their two in-person meetings – one of which took place on campus and of which did not.

“What I like about him as a position coach is he is not just somebody who understands wide receiver play,” Flood said. “He understands the quarterback. He understands the protection. He really has a good skill set or a good knowledge base for everything on the offense. I think all those things will make him a better receivers coach and will make the receivers a smarter position group. A smarter player is always better a player.”

Hill, who has been a leave of absence from the program since the fall, retires after amassing 1,089 victories in 37 seasons — including a 941-658-7 record since 1984 for the Scarlet Knights. It’s believed Hill’s career win total ranks 42nd in college baseball coaching history all-time.

Hill, 79, will be replaced by Joe Litterio, who has been serving as acting head coach for the Scarlet Knights, who began the 2014 campaign last weekend at FIU in Miami without Hill in the dugout for the first time in 31 years.

Stay tuned to Scarlet Scuttlebutt for more on this story throughout the day.

Head coach Steve Pikiell came up big in landing the playmaking floor general Monday was a hugely important day for the Rutgers men’s basketball program, as point guard of the future, Paul Mulcahy, signed his national letter of intent, making him officially a Scarlet Knight. Mulcahy is rated a 3-star and 4-star prospect, depending on […]